You've always wanted your own distinctive wedding - not just some prettified thing out of a wedding magazine or a movie set that everyone can tell you got just because you were able to throw money at it.
Here are your choices in great, individual and tasteful wedding venues that are kind of off the popular beat.
Let's start with a wedding at home.
Since this isn't a commercial wedding venue, there are no rules that restrict you to using caterers or other vendors that someone else chooses.
Not only will the entire wedding feel down-to-Earth and tasteful, you can actually pick and choose the exact vendors who get to cater to your needs.
And of course, you don't even have to employ all those staff members that you would have to if you went to a commercial venue.
Your friends and family can help and you'll only have to bring in a few hands on hire.
Still, the idea of a home wedding, while it does sound like it could turn out to be considerably cheaper than commercial wedding venues, can often turn out the opposite.
The thing is, when you go to a commercial venue, they have their own props for the wedding - the silverware, the barware, the public address system, the dance floor, the seating arrangements and a thousand other things that they all include with the price.
Since they deal in weddings in volume (a wedding or two every day), you get the wholesale rate.
Since you deal with weddings as one-offs (hopefully), you get the full retail price when you go out to rent all of this stuff.
Then there are going to be no end of headaches disposing of all the trash, getting permission from the local authorities to have a hundred new cars parking on your street on the day and so on.
How about picking private event spaces at University auditoriums, country clubs and so on? Since these places don't handle weddings on a regular basis, you'll probably have all the time you need.
You won't be hurried out at the end of the wedding like you would in some other places.
That should feel a lot better than what the regular commercial wedding spots do.
And of course, you won't have overtime charges.
These places can be very beautiful too and will usually have the public address systems and lighting systems in place already that you need.
What makes them a bad idea though is that these places usually have approved vendor lists.
If you can live with the vendors they have already, these could be really good ideas.
But you'll find in the end these places cost quite a bit.
They have to charge you for their liquor license.
How do outdoor wedding venues fare? You can have one on a beach or in a beautiful garden or public park or anywhere else that you choose.
You get all the space you want and the ambiance you get could be really beautiful.
Of course, if you believe that the weather isn't going to be kind to your plans, you'll need a tent.
And tents start at a couple thousand dollars at the very minimum.
And then you have to plan for what will happen if it turns out to be a windy day, a day with lots of pollen to upset people with allergies or a day was insects.
And of course, if you're at a public venue, local regulations will require that you wrap things up by 10 at night.